Luxembourg to officially recognise Armenian Genocide?

Opposition party CSV is planning to introduce a motion in parliament to officially recognise the Armenian killings between 1915 and 1918 as genocide.

21.04.2015

(CS) Opposition party CSV is planning to introduce a motion in parliament to officially recognise the Armenian killings between 1915 and 1918 as genocide.

CSV deputy Laurent Mosar on Tuesday announced the party's intention to introduce the motion. The move comes shorty after commemorative ceremonies marking the 100th anniversary of the start of the killings.

Estimates for the number of Armenians killed between 1915 and 1918 vary from 500,000 to around 1.5 million. The mass executions, deportations, death marches and use of concentration camps are widely recognised by historians as the first 20th Century genocide.

However, Turkey refuses to acknowledge the killings as genocide. Pope Francis most recently was harshly criticised by Prime Minister Recep Erdogan for using the word genocide during a memorial mass for the victims of the killings.

Just over 20 countries in the world have officially recognised the Armenian mass-murder as genocide. In the EU, these include Belgium, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia and Sweden.